Kingwood musical arts society sets 3 concerts and fundraiser

Published 3:00 pm, Tuesday, February 5, 2013

The Kingwood Musical Arts Society is planning a strong finish for its 2012-13 season, with three concerts and a fundraising event on the horizon.

The society will host a Valentine-themed dinner and dance to benefit its student scholarships program from 7-11 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8, at the Redstone Golf Club. The event will feature dinner, dancing, raffle drawings and performances by the Kingwood Big Band.

The Kingwood Big Band Spring Jazz Concert will be held at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 8, and Saturday, March 9, on the Lone Star College-Kingwood campus.

"The Spring Jazz Concert is historically an opportunity for the Big Band to kind of stretch its wings and play a little more difficult repertoire than we usually do," Kingwood Musical Arts Society Chairman Don Pagel said.

"It's an evening of great jazz - both classic '40s and '50s jazz, as well as more contemporary stuff from the '70s, '80s and '90s."

"This will be a night of great and sacred Czech chorale music," Pagel said.

"The First Presbyterian Church of Kingwood has absolutely wonderful acoustics; it's one of the reasons that we use it for our chorale concerts."

The Kingwood Big Band will also host its first jazz festival Saturday, May 4, on the Lone Star College-Kingwood campus.

The Kingwood Musical Arts Society has invited an award-winning jazz trumpeter R to perform and help celebrate what it hopes will become an annual event.

"We'll have Grammy award-winning jazz trumpet player Randy Brecker coming in to town to do workshops with local high school jazz ensembles and then perform with the Kingwood Big Band that evening," Pagel said. Tickets for Kingwood Musical Arts Society concerts cost $15 to $20 per person; discounted tickets are available for seniors, students and Kingwood Musical Arts Society members. Tickets are available on the Kingwood Musical Arts Society website. Call 281-216-4967, email info@KingwoodMusicalArts.org or visit www.kingwoodmusicalarts.org.